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Shankara's Advaita Vedanta Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta David Paul Boaz The Purusha, the inner Self, dwells always at the Heart. That One is the Bright, the luminous immortal Self. Katha Upanishad Shankara’s teaching on the Upanishads, Vedanta (Brahma) Sutra and Bhagavad Gita is the very nondual essence of Vedanta, and a sublime contribution to the world’s spiritual literature, and to our nondual Great Wisdom Tradition teaching. Shankara (788-820) was the supreme adept-realizer of the Hindu Upanishadic tradition. In his thirty two years this great master and scholar re-established the authority of the Vedas against the prevailing Buddhist ideology of the time. For Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta the supreme truth of the three Hindu canons (the Upanishads, Vedanta Sutra and Bhagvad Gita) is the nondual nature of Brahman, Absolute Spirit that is Reality Itself. For the Advaita Vedanta of Shankara, Brahman is the nondual primordial awareness that is Absolute or Ultimate Consciousness Being Itself, “One, without a second,” without limit, empty of all predicates, attributes and qualities, beyond concept and belief, or any subject-object dualism whatsoever. As we have seen, Shankara refers to this prior unity as Nirguna Brahman, the Absolute. Satchitananda however, is usually understood as Saguna Brahman, Brahman with relative qualities, the Great Love that is being (sat), consciousness (chit) and bliss (ananda). Ishvara (usually as the Trimurti) the primordial creator-God or creative principle of Brahman is also Saguna Brahman, the spacetime limited creator God, the cause of the conditional state of ananda/bliss and the object of the spiritual devotion of the devotee. Nirguna Brahman is pure nondual Being Itself; Saguna Brahman is pure Being in the various states and stages of becoming in spacetime reality. These two Brahmans are not separate entities. These two aspects of the one great Reality, are the ontologically prior union of the dualism of being and becoming, of emptiness and form, of the Two Truths that are one absolute reality with its arising, unfolding relative phenomenal appearances. “The One is. The One is not” (Plato, Parmenides). For Shankara then, Nirguna Brahman is the non-experiential, non-conceptual, uncreated nondual Base in whom arises the always present enlightened, pure luminous witness presence, the bright vidya of the Atman-Self that is only Brahman abiding at the heart of all beings. Saguna Brahman is the yogi’s great bliss, bhakti, the joyous experiential state of devotion and compassion to God/Ishvara. If Saguna Brahman is the bliss of conditional savikalpa samadhi, then Nirguna Brahman is the pure, unelaborated, unconditional Primordial Awareness Itself. This pristine non- conceptual, nondual awareness realization of the vidya-Atman presence of that Absolute Reality is nirvikalpa Samadhi. Then, finally sahaj samadhi, paravidya, the yogi’s perfect direct realization, the nondual Primordial Awareness Wisdom (jnana/gnosis) that ‘I am Brahman,” Tat tvam ami, That I am! This state is the ontologically prior, essential unity of the nondual supreme source and its bright vidya presence in beings, and Brahman is its ground. As savikalpa, nirvikalpa and sahaj samadhi is stabilized in the lifeworld through the spiritual path of the continuous practice of jnana yoga and the other yogas, the ignorance (avidya) that binds us to the wheel of samsara is replaced with vidya, the enlightenment of liberation from this suffering of karma, then the permanent realization—moksha (mukta)—expressed as compassionate conduct in the everyday lifeworld. Moksha liberation is the transcendental consciousness of turiya, the nondual “fourth state” (after waking, dreaming and deep sleep states) that is the prior primordial unity of Nirguna Brahman and Saguna Brahman. Kham Brahm, The Bright Brahman is the Self, Brahman is the world. “All is Brahman... the Self is Brahman… I am Brahman... Brahman is the world.” Such piths from the Upanishads reveal the vital relationship between Brahman, the nondual monadic Absolute Reality, and the dualistic relative-conventional reality of the phenomenal world arising therein, including sensing, perceiving, thinking beings to ponder it all. Truly, Thou art that, the Self that is nondual Brahman . the truth apart from which nothing is . thou art that because this whole world emanates from Brahman, which alone is, and is Brahman Itself. It can be comprehended only by the eye of wisdom and the experienced heart of the yogi. It is the substratum of the illusory world (Maya, avidya, vikshepa) that seems to be superimposed on it. It is the cause of the emanation, preservation, and re-absorption of the world. It is the supreme cause, whole, itself has no causes; all the worlds of name and form are its effects, yet it is distinct from cause and effect. It is neither existence nor non-existence . It is without attributes . The gross mind cannot reach it. It can be experienced only through nirvikalpa samadhi. It is Being- Knowledge- Bliss. It is single in essence . That Brahman which is all this, “That thou art” (Tat tvam asi). - Sri Ramana Maharshi (1970) For Shankara, Brahman, as the utterly unconditional Absolute, is the essence or Atman-Self at the spiritual heart of all sentient beings. Moreover, this self-nature of all beings, indeed all phenomenal existence arises as and is one with, or identical to Brahman. The ultimate “goal” of the path of human existence is the removal of the veil of ignorance (avidya, Maya) and the recognition (paravidya, gnosis) by the individual of this primordial relationship of identity with Brahman. From this realization one attains liberation (moksha) from the cycle of suffering, death and rebirth. This realization that our actual identity—our supreme identity—is Brahman is the fruition 2 of our heart’s desire. This realization is paramananda (Buddhist mahasuka) ultimate “Happiness Itself.” Beneath the dualism and the theism of the Vedas and Upanishads then, at the very root of attention, we find an absolute, nondual spiritual unity of matter and spirit that was to be developed by Adi Shankara into a rigorous, non-objective yet conventionally realistic, absolute nondual monistic transcendental idealism. Although there are dualistic, pantheistic and theistic trends in the Vedas, Advaita Vedanta cannot be said to be theistic for the highest God Ishvara, with its Trimurti, the one whole with three forms—Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma—arises within, and is ontologically identical to the unconditional monadic nondual Absolute, beyond all relative experience, concept and belief. Shankara’s nondual Advaita Vedanta view of the Upanishads was criticized, unconvincingly, by Ramanuja (Qualified Nondual Vedanta, and Madhva (Dualistic Vedanta) for this reason. It is exceedingly difficult for the conventional exoteric and esoteric religious consciousness to transcend theistic concept and belief to the utterly ineffable supreme nondual Base/source in whom this all arises. It is far easier to remain in our uncomfortable comfort zones of conceptual belief in a separate theistic creator God. Advaita Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism The nature of mind is the unity of awareness and emptiness. - Shakyamuni Buddha (Prajnaparamita Sutra) Gautama Shakyamuni (c.566-486 BCE), the historical Buddha was acquainted with the theistic dualism of various Vedic and Upanishadic orthodox schools, and as Buddhism developed in India the apparent creator monotheism of the Upanishads with its exoteric, dualistic presumption of a permanent yet separate self Atman was rejected. (Dualistic theism may be a step toward nondual understanding.) However, the Vedic/Upanishadic doctrines of Maya, cause and effect karma, and vidya-moksha liberation from the suffering of karma were integrated into Hinayana and later Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Yet, from the innermost secret nondual view of Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta there is no contradiction in the Atman-Self doctrine and the Buddhist doctrine of anatman or no-self, for when the neti, neti (not this, not this) vichara consideration (p.209) is carried to its ultimate conclusion, the ostensibly permanent and eternal incarnating Atman-Self that is Brahman of the Upanishads, is ontologically identical to the “emptiness of self” (anatman) of the Madhyamaka Prasangika (Rangtong), the great centrist view of Mahayana Buddhism. That is, the Atman-Self is not, at its nondual root, an absolute, eternal, permanently existent substrate or self-entity at all, for it is identical to Nirguna Brahman which is “empty of all qualities and attributes,” including the attribute of self-existence. The Self that is Atman-Brahman is rather, the timeless, spaceless nondual Absolute or Ultimate 3 Reality. This Reality is eternal, not as temporal duration, but as the timeless moment now. It is permanent, not as existing forever in space, but as changeless and spaceless. However, to exoteric, conventional dualistic understanding, the incarnated Soul-Self Atman that is Brahman is a separate, permanently existing eternal entity. Thus the Buddhist criticism that nondual Vedanta is eternalist. However, to the nondual mind of enlightenment—the view of Ultimate Truth—the egoic jivatma self is always changing and impermanent, while the Atman-Self is unseparate from, identical to, and arises within the monadic, changeless, timeless, spaceless Nirguna Brahman, the nondual Ultimate Supreme Source. And, this is analogous to Mahayana shunyata/emptiness. Again, the Atman-Self that is Brahman is empty of all predicates, including inherent existence. The
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